JW: Might as well start at the start - what is your first memory of something that flew? Were you hooked immediately?

	Señor Ellison

AE: Well, my dad always claimed that tying a kite to my pram when I was just 6 months old cost him a soddin' fortune! That said I do clearly remember playing about with rubber powered Sleek Streaks, home made kites and the like but my first proper model was a Keil Kraft 'Gnome' pod and boom free flight glider. My dad built it and it flew crap with around half a pound of electricians solder wrapped around the nose. I complained that I could do better and he bought me another identical kit which I made myself - much to the dismay of my mum who thought dope was 'real' drugs..... That model flew out of the field and was eventually lost upwards in a thermal with me chasing it across a ploughed field wearing my dad's wellington boots...... You're makin' me cry here! :-)

JW: Those were the days, eh? Did you maintain an interest in gliders especially? Or was it anything that flew? Were you "the kid with the gliders?"

AE: I did quite a lot of free flight glider stuff up to the age of around 12. My dad used to tow them up for me after I'd lit the DT fuse..... I soon progressed to control line which was another thing we could do together on the fields near my parents house. My first models were those Cox plastic ready to go things and I learned how hard a small prop could hit you! Never really got on with

	A Man and his Weasel

diesels.... I soon got into competitive control line especially combat but was banned for fighting! :-) When I started flying radio in about 1980 my first model was a glider - A Mike Smart 'Triad' with a fancy Eppler 205 wing. By the time I got it up a slope I knew how to fly it after all the tows up on the flat.... I started flying power at about the same time and tried to do both disciplines together but having to rely on parental transport stopped me getting up the hills much until motorbikes in 1983..... Ever seen a bike rider going through town with a PSS space shuttle on his back? I made the local papers..

JW: If you made the papers I'd say you qualify as "the kid with the gliders!" You seem to have predilection for hi-performance slopers. Have you always been into the go-fast side of sloping?

AE: Around 1990 my flying was stagnating and I set out for the first time to the British National Championships (on my motorbike) to see what was out there in the big wide world.... I saw F3D pylon racing for the very first time. I'd heard about it of course but seeing it for real is something else. I started flying fast delta's and was sponsored by a couple of UK companies and joined the UK model show scene. Alongside this I set a few british records for speed (232mph) and got involved in the British Model Flying Association (like your AMA) as the director for RC Power. I did about 9 years here before I started a family and vowed when I knocked it on the head some time ago to get more slope soaring done with my spare time. I

	On The Edge

wanted a model with slope performance akin to my electric hotliner and discovered F3F buying an Acacia 2 and a Compact Wizard. From F3F I discovered the VR98 video with footage at the end of Joe Wurts DS'ing Parker. This led me to Dave Reese's lift ticket video and the Zipper, Rodent, F20 etc. Then RC-Groups..... The rest is history. I get bored doing 'normal' stuff. Go fast is a buzz but I get bored DS'ing and it's tricky to find a good spot over here even though I have the toys. I like the eternal energy it provides and tend to aerobat on the backside whenever I do it but it doesn't beat staring into the teeth of a gale and physically feeling alive. I like to stand on the edge with my toes curled over you know (I'm an old surfer too). So to answer your question with no more waffle- It's all Daves fault. And he won't sell me his Feldvebel Kestrel neither - He's got two you know!

JW: I'll work on Dave when I get his interview. Can't promise you a Kestrel but I'll embarrass him as best I can. You obviously love big air flying. Talk a little about what it takes to make a heavy plane fly well in big air.

AE: I like the buzz of being able to fly when all around are crashing.... :-) Is that a bad thing? It is true that I'll sell my own mother for a good day up a hill on a big day especially a coastal slope and the smooth air it provides but it's all about having the right toys. Mind you even if you have the wrong toys you can still get them away if you know what you're doing. The number of times I've seen models crashed on launch in big air by people chucking them from too far back. Until the weekend just gone my biggest was 86.1mph. On new years eve we did the ton easily. An awesome day. Have a well sorted model - no test flying on the biggest days. Tough enough to lawndart or similar. Nobody ever floated a model gently down to the ground in a hurricane gale! This usually means composites but some of the high performance EPP will do now. Models lik

	Seller or Sell-Out?

e the HP60 for example. Fit ballast and load it up! Get a launcher who knows what he's doing if it's too rough to try it alone. Throw it down the hill not out - An important one this. Don't want to be risking a stall with a heavy. They don't like it too much. When you're up, keep it ripping! Fly it like you stole it - you'll usually have the sky to yourself anyway but if you don't - do try to go the same way. Halfpipes work well with a little something thrown in the middle for effect. Oh! get a bendy aerial too. We fly on 35Mhz in the UK and rubber duckies are rare on model TX's. They are out there though. A Tx with a stock antennae is hard to hold on to about 65mph on the edge. If you have to dodge rocks coming up the hill in the wind don't worry - This is not a bad thing. It's not for everyone but if you've got the toys you won't be grounded. The trick is getting the toys..... When your face is sore with laughing or rigor has set into your knuckles with the cold - land with committment. NOT like a girl !!! Warm up - go back - and do it again.......

JW: What about the danger?

AE: I haven't really found it to be dangerous to be honest. Just bloody windy! Certainly no more dangerous than timekeeping some muppet with a moulded F3F toy, a belly full of ballast and only the ability to fly zagi's! Mind you, you would be stupid to try and climb down a cliff face for a few bucks of RC toy! I rescued a guy off St Agnes Head once who'd gone down for a beat up foamie. The trick is to always end up on the top you see........ On big days I usually end up flying alone, well with the sky to myself anyway. Not many joe publics on our hills to watch out for and no rattlesnakes or other poisonous minibeasts waiting to pounce in the LZ. There's the odd bit of rotor for sure but it's just more likely to blow you back up the hill than down it. Our coastal sites don't really look like the 450' drops you guys have in cali! They tend to be smoother and grassy. Even on the biggest days with the heaviest models the inertia is not as high as a model turbine or F3D model passing close by at 250mph! To be honest the most I'm likely to suffer from is the odd sniffle and runny nose. Mind you I did break my ankle in the most awesome way out sloping and slipping on sheep shite once! Got excellent xrays of the metalwork if you want one! :-)

JW: So - what is the best day you can remember on the slope? The actual day, not a composite of memories.

	Easy Launch

AE: Tough one that - there have been so many. For sheer fun it would have to be one of our Tyldesley Model Flying Club combat sessions. Tyldesley rules = No rules. Heck if you can't hit his model switch his tx off! We're fortunate enough to have use of a totally private slope with zero public access out onthe moors. I suppose our combat sessions are a bit like paintballing. If you can't handle the ethics - stay away! All consenting adults together and so on. We had a particularly good one last year when the lift was everywhere that sticks in the mind. A good DS session on Rushup Edge or a visit to the Lleyn Penninsula would run that a close second. I like to load up the car and take lots of models then fly them all. Competition wise it would be winning the British F3F nationals in 2003 to qualify for the 2004 Viking Race team.

JW: What's it like out there? I've never flown in the UK but I hope to someday.

AE: I'm having a beer and listening to Hendrix.......Want one or is it too early your side? OK, so flying in the UK eh? Well the UK mainland is made up of three countries really. England has the moast fantastic coastal slope especially in the south around Cornwall. Very similar to your local except more craggy really. Not many people down that way though so the hills are quiet and there's not much to be had inland. Hit central England and you start to go up. There is some awesome big air sites around derbyshire (maybe 45 miles from me or so) Mam Tor being especially good. Many of the sites are shared with hang and paragliders though and there is oten friction but on the bigger days they're sitting it out of course. Into the lake district in the north of england a

	The Thousand Yard Stare

nd you really do hit the mountains. The trouble is that the roads are all at the bottom of the hills so you've a climb on your hands. Nice to spend the day out though. massive thermals building up over that mountain range. These ranges merge into Scotland of course and it just gets steeper and more craggy. I've not done much soaring north of the border though. Don't need to with Wales so accessible. In the north we have the Lleyn Penninsula. No people as such. One model club and big coastal slopes for every direction. Too many in fact as you're spoiled for choice. There are some 1000ft vertical drops here - you need to be careful but the air is big man...... Down in the south of wales we have the Bwlch of course. Now that is an awesome slope. It ticks many many boxes. I think it's held the F3F world record now 5 or 6 times. No other hill anywhere can lay claim to that so it tells you what a good site it can be. It's 230 miles away from my place but well worth the drive on a good day especially inthe northerly wind directions. HUGE HUGE thermals that can make a mouldy fly so fast you think the paints gonna peel off! It gets cloudbound a lot though and a lot of meets are fogged off. There are also some DS sites coming to the fore in south wales. The truly dedicated guys just smashed 200mph but we don't seem to get the clean shear of Parker and the like...... The other DS hills in the south of england tend to be more rolling and grassy. I do prefer the coastal stuff though it can get boring flying in perfect air every time. It's all about having the right toys you know..... Big air though. I make special trips for big air up coastal slopes in certain directions. Fill the car with 15 models or so and get a good 8 or 10 hours in with some special toys nobody else has over here. Thats my favourite.

JW: Jimi's good slope music. So now on to your worst slope day...

AE: The Happy Mondays are on now...... Bad day on the slope eh? I was going to say I'd never really had one....A bad days sloping is still better than a good day in the office! Then

	Ellison's Sloping Leg

I remembered spending 2 1/2 hours flat on my back in -17 degrees (wind chill) waiting for the ambulance to come and rescue me and my broken leg. I'd say that qualifies! :-) If you're talking about crashes though I've never really had a bad one...... This sounds weird but I don't tend to break stuff. The worst I've ever had was popping the nose of my Shooting Star (Nemesis) with a flat Nimh. (Don't use them anymore)I do tend to argue with muppets and fun poilice though. I'm kind of spoiling for a fight with people who are clearly up themselves. Case in point from one of my slope columns: Picture this. It's around 10am and there are 15 of us on the slope already and having a great day. There is the usual amount of banter with the more experienced helping the lesser. The scale lads are up high and indulging in a little cross country. I've been doing a few BMFA slope A certificates for people. The F3F fliers are taking turns to beat up the edge of the slope and the beginners are plodding slowly around with their foamies. Everybody getting on famously and keeping out of each others way. By the end of 5 hours we are still having a very enjoyable day on the slope with no mishaps at all, when suddenly "Whingersaurus*" arrives with his beat up, silk covered, Gentle Lady and linear servos. ( *A short arsed old dinosaur genetically disposed to holding a club committee position 'cos the meeting room has better heating than his council terrace and the stewed tea is free). His arrival does take us by surprise as the committee of this club are spotted on the slope about as often as the Yeti! What's the first thing he does? Marches right up to me while I'm whistling back and forth with my moulded racer and prods me in the chest (which must be difficult for him given his diminutive stature) barking something incoherently about my guest not being a club member, and something about my flying intimidating the others! That's the trouble with writing a column in a mag. It can make you the focus of attention for the local nutter sometimes. His words are lost in the best lift of the day and were it not for his Esther Rantzen 'Jobsworth' hat I wouldn't have recognised him. Anyway he's wrong on both counts as I try to explain to him when I've landed. Trouble now is he's locked himself into his car and won't discuss it outside of the committee meetings to which I'm not invited. As he decides its too windy for him to fly his old piece of tat he issues a few more rollickings to anyone within earshot and promptly disappears home to report us all to the club President. His 'EU School of Whinging' homework assignment completed for the week. The President calls me later that evening to enquire if "He was being a pratt again". I politely tell him that he already knows the answer to that question and that when I win the lottery I'm going to have said Whinger bumped off and cast in clear Perspex on the lip of the slope so all of us up the hill whose day he ruined can perform neatly rehearsed dance numbers on his grave whilst we fly our foamies in killer combat. With a bit of luck he' ll cyano himself to his ego and be unable to get out the door of his modelling room! :-)

JW: Great story! I remember that one. Of course, the broken leg must certainly be your worst day. Who finally found you out there?

AE: I was with a couple of mates, Reed. Funny thing is though for a change we were on a fairly accessible slope. We were actually moving to a different one when the accident happened. The slope we were going too was well out of the way and I'd often flown there alone. If i'd had my accident at one of those times the first anybody would have known about it would have been on the news one night telling how some walker had stumbled across this body hugging a compact wizard for warmth! Seriously, this was in the welsh mountains and people have been found dead in cars up there who have been missing for weeks! I haven't sloped alone since. Well not when we're going 'deep' anyway.

JW: I'll keep that in mind! Let's talk about F3F for a moment. The competition is strong and lively in the UK and Europe. Would you say F3F is growing worldwide?

AE: Sorry for the delay - A kit manufacturer mithering me on the phone about the review I'm doing for him. F3F? I'm the current league co-ordinator in the UK and it's never been so big. We had 65 pilots race last year and we're having to change things around with proposals for regional leagues in 2008. I do think they oversubscribe races likre the VR though but with the models becoming more and more available these days there's no sign of the numbers stopping growing. It's not for everyone though and I only really see it as something else to do one weekend a month with my moulded toys. If you don't fly many rounds there is a lot of luck involved especially on our inland slopes though. Rugen for the VR was interesting. I'd had enough when I got home and didn't go near a sailplane for a month! Not in the workshop, hill, model shop, nothing.... I guess you can have your fill.

JW: Yes, I do get my fill from time to time as well. Do you find that the competitive aspect of F3F interferes with the fun at all?

AE: Only when you're having a nightmare! :-) I do enjoy it but sometimes it tends to be moe about the event rather than your performance. It's very strong socially here in the UK. We might get 45 pilots for some races and it's more like a jamboree! I think what I enjoy most is the very technical aspect of the glider set up and then having to tweak to get the ultimate from it. if you feel you couldn't do any better in the air that you were dealt you're on to a good thing. Plus of course the chance to fly fast gliders on many different slopes in a wide variety of conditions. I suppose if you know you're on the verge of a win it's more of a trip if you do well. I can't remember...It's been so long! Ha ha!

JW: Can you think of anything else you'd like to say (that doesn't already end up in your column!)?

AE: Mmm. Dunno. Want some details on my JART variations?.......

JW: Sure, let's talk JART.

AE: I guess the biggest difference is the layup of my Jart to most of the others. I've got models to play with in medium winds but I wanted for something that would play

	Read Ellison's Column (yep, he does talk JART)
	June 2006	January 2007

nicely in the 40mph ish stuff when the Rodent is only really getting going. I laid up the Jart with 200g carbon under 1/32" ply with three layers of 50g glass on top. It should bounce off rocks! The tail is bagged with 1/64" ply over carbon tissue and then again 3 layers of glass. The leading edges are Cypress instead of the Oak I got fed up of shaping on my Doug Reel Barracuda. I did have some trouble joining the epoxy finish to Dutchy's polyester fuz but settled on a steel epoxy called JB Weld which has never let me down before. I also made some wing saddles from hard balsa to give a bigger gluing area. Sure if i cartwheel it it should crack the wing off but I think that would be the least of my worries. I read about JARTs flying at 35oz. That's about the weight of my wing! :-) I've also fitted a ballast tube to the belly which will take 3lbs of lead. Doubt I'll ever need all that but hey you never can tell! The wing servos will be Multiplex slimstars and the elevator servo is let into the top surface of the wing just under the hatch and will drive a 6mm carbon pushrod. It's away for paint at the moment as you know. We've tweaked the colour scheme a little but it need a little more yellow on top. Maybe some lightning up the nose....... see attached. The wing section I suppose is almost identical to my Joe Cormier mach 1 (told you I had special toys.......) and I'm expecting the same kind of groove. Your videos are very good and don't leave much left to the imagination. I'm happy that it will just be something 'different' on the slopes.

JW: That baby should tear holes in the sky! What are your favorite aerobatic maneuvers?

AE: Now this depends on the type of hill. We have some big slopes over here but I do like to fly little coastal bluffs maybe 30ft high or so that take a bit of work. Of course the depth of lift is small on these so halfpiping is always good for building up energy and then throwing some move in the middle for effect. I like to fox the observer by pushing under a move where you might expect a pull out, but also like to fly big flat circuits or eights out from the hill at speed with Derry turns at the crossovers rolling through the inverted to the opposite bank instead of through the upright. Like that little knife edge bit you hit in your test flight vids where you push out inverted when the model is topside in.....That's the sort of thing I'm talkin' about. High energy is good but you just can't beat huge consecutive loops sometimes if the lift is booming. If i'm aerobatting big mouldies I like to see the wing working for the money! If i'm bending it with g force i'm a happy bunny.....

JW: What goes through your mind while your flying in high-energy conditions?

AE: I'm too busy laughing to think about that! I'm really a seat of your pants flier. Of course it helps to know a model really well and get that 'feel' for what you can pull off with the energy you have. I usually fly quite aggressively and end up with the sky to myself with the other guys wincing at the back watching! I still don't plan the next manoeuvre though. I think that would make it boring. I lie 'free styling' I suppose. I used to show fly fast delta aircraft for a couple of sponsors over here and that is high energy flying. A lot of the stuff I do on the slope emanates the old stuff i did in front of the public. I've had comments on the similarities from some of the f3f pilots who used to see me fly my deltas as they watch me sport flying before or after a comp. I guess you develop a style with old favourites in your trick book. I was just the same when I surfed....

JW: Now I see where we're a bit different. I don't plan my entire program but I'm such a control freak that I can say what I'm going to do before I do it. Sounds like you'd rather not have that much time before the next move?

AE: Oh I can do it if I have to.....I just prefer not to. I'm the same in competition really. I don't like to perform for judges for instance. I much prefer a race. I used to fly fun fly at national level. If I did more touch and goes than you or more limbo passes I'd win - simple as that. I didn't have to worry that some third party judge was gonna mark me down for being a few degrees off line in my cub an 8! Flying to a plan is useful for some areas of what I do now. Take the photography for instance. Photographing gliders for kit reviews needs fussy placement of the model so it's good to have a certain mastery over them rather than flying it as if you were clinging on to their tail feathers all of the time just that little bit behind the model. Planning your next move in conjunction with the cameraman and then carrying it through is important. Still, I like to make it all up as I do it and fly the models in that bit of the envelope where the stamp usually goes....right on the edge. That's where the name of the column came from really as well as the obvious 'slope soaring' connotation of course. Coming up on half past midnight here so we'll knock this on the head for now. Have a think if there's anything else you want to squeeze out of me and we'll pick it up another time. later........

JW: Thanks, Andy!